L6 v/ 
■rr73 



A STUDY OF 
THINGS THE SCHOOL 
SHOULD DO FOR 
THE CHILD. 
SUGGESTIONS ON 
STUDY OF 
U. S. HISTORY, 
AND ARITHMETIC, 
AND SOME GAINS. 



BY THE STATE 

SUPERINTENDENT 

OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

OF MAINE, ^if^^ H "^^^^ ^^'^^ 




1902. 






SOME THINGS THE COAIMON SCHOOL SHOULD 
DO FOR THE CHILD. 



It would be better for our children, and hence best for all institutions- 
with which they are, or may be associated, if the school gave them bet- 
ter ideas of the relative value of facts. These stubborn things have 
always been with us and will remain to the end. We should, however, 
see clearly that isolated details are difficult to master, and when mastered, 
become burdens, increasing in weight as they increase in number and as 
we add to the length of time they are to be retained. When related and 
and we see this relation, they are of service, because they give us an 
understanding of the principles underlying them, and a conception of 
the teachings they embody. Unless facts illuminate or stimulate our 
investigations, it would be better to house them in books than in heads. 
If stored away in the mind, by a conscious effort, they tend to stupify 
and paralyze. One's information becomes a means of grace only when 
he knows a thing so well that he is unconscious of his knowledge. We 
are learning the unwisdom of trying to become wise by making ourselves 
walking encyclopedias. We are beginning to discover that these labors 
not only sap the vitality out of life, but communicate to it a certain 
wooden quality which takes from living its warmth, richness, power. 
The man who is satisfied with details grows narrower with the years 
and leaner as his horde increases. The miserly spirit is as surely devel- 
oped by this process as it is in the poor wretch who gloats over his shining 
accumulations. Such a one has reached his limit of usefulness when he 
has told the few things he thinks he knows. 

The work of the public school develops keenness of observation and 
skill in handling material in its student force, and hence the child comes 
to have an unusual facility in doing things ; but the development of these 
powers without the safeguard of a high moral sense tends to produce 
rebels instead of safe citizens. 

Pedagogical vagaries have taken on many forms, but perhaps the least 
excusable is found in the so-called enrichment of our courses of study. 
These additions have given us many new subjects and an almost unend- 
ing list of new topics to be strained through the sieve in the top of the 
child's head. The result has been that the child has come to place a 
higher estimate on the form than on the life it shelters. He has devel- 
oped great capacity for absorbing, but has not the power of digesting 
the facts devoured ; hence, he has become the least interesting and the 

St[;21 fy07 

0. of a 



^^ most hopeless of intellectual and moral dyspeptics. He suffers from all 

^ ?• the evils incident to an excessive and intoxicating diet. He has but 

vLl"^ little of that staying quality, or love for work which results from whole- 

J some conditions. Even the physical food of the child is stimulating and 

irritating rather than satisfying and nourishing, while his clothing is 

designed to attract the attention of others and cultivate the vanity of the 

wearer. 

Our teachers are coming to see that all questions are, in their ultimate 
analysis, moral questions. The age at which the child should enter school, 
the leng-th of time he should remain therein, the studies he should pur- 
sue, the way in which he should do his work, the spirit which should 
control him. the purpose he should have in life and his willingness to 
serve, are among the things which should receive the first consideration 
but which are too often left to the decision of accident. The child can 
never be well taught until those having the direction of his training come 
to see that they are responsible for fitting a human being to become a 
worthy citizen of the State. Physical surroundings, mental drill, moral 
nurture are only useful so far as they contribute to this end. 

The schools have gone much too far in directing physical action and 
in limiting the moral judgment of the child. His first and greatest right is 
the right to grow, physically and morally. The former depends upon 
proper and sufficient food and exercise : the latter upon counsel and guid- 
ance and also upon freedom to learn through his mistakes. If all acts are 
performed under external restraint, the actor is not only enfeebled, but 
debased. It would be better if we said less frequently "don't" and more 
frequently permitted the child to learn, from experience, the evils of 
wrong doing and the rewards of right living. Crutches are useful to 
the invalid, but crippling to the robust. Suggestion and even compul- 
sion have their place in the training of the child, but if the one is used 
too frequently or the other is insisted upon too strenuously, the victim 
can neither go afoot nor alone; he can neither render a service nor 
increase his ability to work. 

We need a saner plan for the work of the schoolroom. Intellip.ent 
thoughtfulness would teach us that facts are based upon simple principles 
which can be so worded as to be easily within the comprehension of the 
child. Facts and processes should be mastered for the purpose of making 
principles, not only comprehensible, but luminous. When one un-ier- 
stands the principles involved in facts studied, he is not only growing, 
but is nurturing the desire for growth, and still better, is breeding the 
wish to give to others of the riches which flood his life and delight his 
soul. This better understanding not only gives zest and stimulus to work. 
but also develops the catholicity of spirit necessary to intelligent citizen- 
ship. 

We often wonder why many of the so-called best people in the world 
most hinder its progress. It is largely duel to the fact that they have become 
so absorbed in existing conditions that they are incapacitated for seeing 
either the genesis or the final conclusion of things. When the problem 
in which they are especially interested seems nearing solution they 
busy themselves with placing obstructions in the way of further progress. 



A pupil who has been so trained that lie can see that all the processes 
in any subject of study are based upon a few principles will grow to 
understand that the Ruler nf the universe has an intelligent plan in the 
management of the world. Such enlargement of his view and powers 
will bring to him with controlling force the thought that much will be 
required of those to whom much has been given ; that wherever light 
and virtue are found there exists the responsibility of carrying these 
blessings to the dwellers in darkness and to the victims of vice. The 
arguments in favor of expansion, as statements of facts, may or may not 
be convincing; the cry of imperialism, as an excuse for spasms, is of 
no special interest, but the i)rinciple holds, that he who has ability in large 
measure, is responsible for the growth of the best in others who are less 
fortunate. When one sees clearly the principles involved in a given 
course of action, then he is prepared to appreciate the moral quality of the 
items incident to such action and is not in danger of being blinded by 
a mass of details. 

No school is worthy of the name unless the child taught therein comes 
to have a sense of his personal, community and national responsibility. 
This knowledge will show him that every violation of rules or laws, every 
instance of malicious destruction of property, every manifestation of 
vandalism, all exhibitions of impudence and in,solence, all forms of dis- 
respect for persons, places, positions, sacred things, help to make possible 
the development of an anarchist and the evolution of an assassin. When 
the school shall have come into its highest estate, the child will grow to 
feel his accountability to himself and to that Power which has given him 
life that he may hasten that day for which the world is toiling, with a 
faith manifest in works as beautiful in spirit as they are wonderful in 
results. 

Even the child must learn that the welfare of this Nation does not rest 
in the hands of its rulers, but in the lives of its common people. If this 
is to be a safe and a wholesome country to live in, then this multitude must 
come to an appreciation .of the fact that true greatness consists in sim- 
plicity, gentleness, faithfulness, individuality, in doing our duty in the 
place in which we find ourselves. Station, wealth, oiifice. name, none of 
these, nor all of them are necessary to the rendering of a worthy ser- 
vice. The child should be taught to reverence the head of a household 
who is true to all the interests committed to his care, and is faithful in 
all work his hands find to do, because he is the man who gives us the 
mastery, not only of the world's markets, but of its destiny as well. 

It is quite as important for one to lie anxious to do his work, as it is for 
one to work out his own salvation. The desire to walk under one's own 
hat; the ability to earn the hat; the capacity to do one's own reading, 
thinking, voting; the determination to represent one's self and count 
one when standing alone, are evidences of a working plan of life the 
world much needs in these days. 

The silent as well as the oral instruction of the teacher should help the 
child to something better than a mastery of text-books if he is to do the 
work of life worthily. His schoolroom experiences should teach him 
that he is the sufferer as well as the loser if he makes it necessary for 



any one to fight for his rights, whether they be social, financial, political 
or religious. He can learn while yet young that failure to pay his pro- 
portion of the public assessment of service or tax is a crime against him- 
self and one for which he will find it difficult to atone. He will here 
have opportunities to learn that he is not only doing the right thing but 
promoting all his best interests when he seeks to give to others equal 
or better opportunities than have fallen to his own lot. 

The wisest man since Plato has said : "There are a thousand who can 
talk for one who can think, and a thousand more who can think for one 
who can feel ; for to feel is poetry, philo-sophy and religion all in one." 
No school can assist in fitting a child for life unless it leads him to see 
that it is as necessary for him to feel a truth as to know what is true. 
There can be no question but that feeling is the highest form of intelli- 
gence yet discovered by the subtlest psychologist. Our great poets have 
been, not only the historians of the future, but have also lived most because 
they have loved most. The thrilling pulse of nature has startled them 
with its power; the wisdom embalmed in the daisy has taught them of 
life, death and the judgment to come; they have read the record written 
in the rocks because they have been in touch as well as in tune with 
Nature. 

The child has a right to look to the teacher for light and guidance. 
It is his privilege to stand between the masters an^ the child and with 
an expression more halting, render it possible for him to make com- 
panions of these great souls and drink of the fountains which they, like 
Longfellow's Pegasus, have left for the refreshment of all who will drink. 
It w-as not the learning of Mark Hopkins, the wisdom of Dr. Arnold, 
nor the vision of Horace Mann, that made each a power while living and 
a blessing in these latter days, but it was the fact that they possessed in 
fullest measure that fine appreciation of life in all its forms which f(jund 
its highest manifestation in old Domsie. This love of art and of .-'he 
child made that old stone schoolhouse in the Glen among the pines more 
than a university and kept Domsie on the watch for the boy o'parts and 
gave him a sagacity which made it easy to provide ways and means to 
send the youth, when found, to Edinboro. 

The child is entitled to such an introduction to the masters as will 
enable him to understand the stations into which they were born, the 
conditions under which they worked, the sufferings they endured and 
the service they rendered. To him the lives of Wagner. Millet, Michael 
Angelo and Lincoln must be something more than dates and names and 
places. He must appreciate the humble homes into which three of ^hem 
were born, and the noble parentage of the fourth, and he must be able 
to discern, as his acquaintance with them becomes more intimate, that 
each loved some form of nature with a great passion ; that each had a 
purpose to which he was true through appalling sufferings; that each 
sweat great drops of blood that other lives might be better lived, and 
that each opened the windows of the souls of millions and let in the light 
of truth and beauty. This acquaintanceship should be promoted until 
the child is able to pass his hand within the arm of one of the saviors 
of the race and go with him down the long path which leads to the 



haven of all good. While on one of these pilgrimages his cheeks will be 
aglow, and his eyes will shine with the light that glorifies the face of the 
devout peasant when he gazes enraptured on the masterpieces of Raphael. 

He must learn while yet young, that there are two atmospheres in this 
world ; the one is physical and fills our lungs ; the other is spiritual and 
gives new and better life to our souls. The first serves its purpose in the 
act which makes use of it ; the second remains with us through all time. 
It comes to us through seers and prophets, making the divine manifest 
in human life. 

He must be so taught and nuist so train himself that he can walk in 
Elysian fields, through jasper gates, along golden streets; kneel at the 
great white throne, and see sights never revealed to mortal eyes, because 
he has that vision which the imagination, warmed by sympathy, can 
bring to him of the Paradise seen by John Milton and the Pilgrim created 
by John Bunyan. 

The right reading of the thirty-eighth chapter of Job. the nineteenth, 
twenty-third and ninetieth Psalms, the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, 
the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, the fifth chapter of Daniel, the Sermon 
on the Mount, the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of St. John, the thir- 
teenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the twenty-first chapter of Rev- 
elations, will help him to see something of the power and wisdom of God 
as well as His love for His children, and will permit him to trace in his 
ancestors the pathways he has traveled and to catch glimpses of that 
undiscovered country toward which he is journeying. 

The child has a right to know quite as much of the Christ who was 
born in a stable, cradled in a manger, who lived in a peasant's cottage, 
worked at a carpenter's bench, who was so poor that he had not where 
to lay his head, and yet was heard gladly by the common people because 
he brought light and life into the world, as he is required to learn of the 
unsavory details of the gods of so-called heathen nations. 

It would be well from the pedagogical standpoint if our teachers sat 
at the feet of the Great Teacher of Nazareth and learned some of the 
simple, homely lessons of daily life. Such instruction would make it 
impossible for them to devote so much time to the evils of wrong doing, 
and would induce them to win the child to a better life by showing him 
the blessings which come from righteous living. It would make them 
more hospitable toward truth wherever found, whether it be in the heart 
of a child or the teachings of the sage. It would give that kind of 
courage which would cast out all fear, except that which comes from 
the dread of being a coward. They would learn that it is not a difficult 
matter and not often an important item for one to have opinions, but it 
is vital that he be controlled by convictions, otherwise he will be carried 
into devious and dangerous paths by the foolish teachings of the unwise. 
They would discover how to become rich without wealth, and happy 
without luxury. Under these influences the whisperings of the message 
of the spirit will be heard while the clamor of its physical embodiment 
will be but little heeded. They will grow so sensitive for others that 
they will have no time to be sensitive for themselves. They will come 
to know that life is alive as long as it is used to give life to others. They 



will see that the world needs to-day, more than ever before, not the arro- 
gance of knowledge, but the graciousness of culture. That above all. 
and giving the motive to all. will be the faith that the love which 
cleanses the lover will purify the world. 

The school will help the child as it makes it possible for him to grow, 
to master himself and his tasks, to feel the pulse of nature, to live in close 
communion with the wise of heart, to rejoice in the companionship of 
those who have pointed the way, and gone on before, to receive truth 
and embalm it in daily living, and to be glad to be alone with God in his 
own heart. 

A nation born in righteousness must live righteously. The menace 
of to-day is not ignorance, but the lack of a controlling moral sentiment. 
We cannot endure as a people if we place a higher estimate on learning 
than we accord to virtue. The time has come when we would better 
teach less cube root and devote more attention to the fundamental prin- 
ciples of right living. That training of the will which keeps us in the 
right path is more to be desired than the wisdom found in books. That 
school serves the child best which helps him to do instinctively the right 
thing, to feel approval for the act done, and at the same time, to have 
an intelligent understanding of the issues involved. 

The school that does this work gives to all organizations that are seek- 
ing to make good things better the help they have a right to demand. 



SOME SUGGESTIONS ON THE STUDY OF UNITED 
STATES HISTORY. 



It is the rule rather than the exception that we attempt to learn of our 
Nation's history by trying to master the dates and facts that make up the 
record of this continent since 1492. Such efforts always have been and 
will continue to be. in a measure, futile. Our history goes back to the 
beginning of time. No one can understand American life who is not 
familiar with the record made by our ancestors on English shores. No 
one can study English history to advantage unless he is familiar with the 
story of the Northmen, the Normans, the Angles, Saxons. Jutes and 
Frisians. The two great classic nations have also had much to do with 
moulding our thought and modifying our lives. It is easy to see that 
our history begins with a day too early to be fixed with exactness. 

Some six or sixty or six hundred thousand years ago. there lived in 
central western Asia, or somewhere else, a small community, springing 
from a common ancestor, and having kindred tastes, characteristics, apti- 
tudes and occupations. As years went on, differences arose, varying 
capacities w^ere evolved, desires for new fields to conquer were born, and 
ambitions to found other and separate communities were developed. 
Those having interests in common gathered themselves together into 
clans, septs, bands or tribes, and leaving their early homes, went their 
several ways, and in process of time grew to be the nations of the earth. 

One section found its way south and east and became the ancestors 
of the unnumbered millions of India. They were in those early days, 
and have remained through all the years, meditative, introspective, meta- 
physical. They have dreamed dreams and seen visions ; they have been 
the authors of a great literature and the fathers of subtle philosophy. 
The Western mind has spun no thread so fine that these keen-eyed Ori- 
entals have not found it easy to separate it into two sections, and with 
a nicety which does not permit us to discover which is the larger part. 
These dwellers in far eastern lands are full brothers of ours and have 
exerted an influence on our lives in the past, and are to be more influ- 
ential in our living in the future, and hence the necessity for our know- 
ing somewhat concerning them. 

The Celts seem to have been the second division to make their way 
out into the unknown world, and we find them in the Basques bf Spain, 
the native Gauls of France, the Welsh in Wales, the Manx in the Isle of 
Man, the Irishry of Ireland, and the native Picts and Scots. They were 
largely endowed with fancy and imagination. They furnished the yeast for 
the human race. They were warmed by the genial rays of joy and with- 
ered by the blasts of sorrow. They responded to the artistic and poetic— 
to beauty wherever found. They had that warmth and unthinking 
impulsiveness which made them the football of the world for centuries. 

The Greeks found their way into the islands of the Aegean and the 
valleys of the most beautiful peninsula of all the earth. They were the 



lovers and embodiers of beauty. They saw it in the hills about them, the 
valleys at their feet, the winding stream, the changing cloud, and gave 
expression to it in grove and temple, in oration and poem, in painting 
and statue. Beauty was their god, and at its shrine they worshipped and 
in this devotion we are blessed. 

The Romans found a home in another and more western peninsula. 
They were born to rule and brought the then known world under 
their domination. They devised and administered a central government. 
Much of our civil law and many of our- civil forms come from this early 
people. They were possessed of dignity, that peculiar self-respect which 
made the humblest Roman a king and fit to rule the peers of the realm. 

The Teutons found their way into northwestern Europe. They lived 
among fogs and fens, bogs and morasses. They were coarse, brutal 
savages. They were passionate lovers and fiercest haters. They were 
gluttons in eating and sots in drinking. They loved home, women, 
kindred, liberty, and took pride in each man representing himself, defend- 
ing his own rights and performing his own duties. They had that inher- 
ent strength, sturdiness, endurance, absorbing faculties which made it 
possible for them to take in all of good other nations evolved, make it 
their own and add to it the saving qualities which they themselves pos- 
sessed, i. e., the ability to multiply their virtues and rid themselves of 
their vices. 

There are two divisions of the race of which mention has not been 
made. One filled a large place in the past and the other is to fill a world- 
wide place in the future. The Slav had not a little of the metaphysical 
twist of the East Indian, a large endowment of the love of the beautiful 
inherent in the Greek, the masterful qualities possessed by the Roman, 
the staying powers given in such large measure to the Teuton and the 
exalted and exulting forces so regnant in the old Celt. A strain of Tar- 
tar blood poisoned the current of his life for a long time and gave to his 
national existence a barbaric trend and an oriental flavor. The years 
have come and gone, the winnowing process has been carried on, the 
Clock of Time is about to strike. The Slav of to-day, as manifest in the 
Russian of the present, is to dispute the conquest of the world with his 
western brothers, the assertive Englishman and the still more presumptu- 
ous American. 

The Hebrew, living on the hills and in the orchards of Judea, had for 
his mission the development of a moral code. This work he performed 
with that peculiar wisdom which makes evident the special direction 
of an over-ruling hand. 

One of the strange lessons to be drawn from all these facts, is that four 
of these divisions seem to have had a special mission to perform and a 
particular problem to solve. The Hebrews gave us a formal statement 
of our relation to the God we worship ; the Greeks gave us our capacity 
to love the beautiful; the Romans gave us the power to rule; the Celts 
have sent througli our veins, in hot currents, those vivid imaginings so 
necessary to sane living, whether the life be that of the statesman, the 
toiler upon the sea, the laborer upon the land, the priest in his cloister, 
or the poet in his study. It is easy to note that these peoples lived 
isolated lives, and in this isolation they toiled and thus were able to serve. 
To each, all others were heathen and foes to be feared, or enemies to 



be slain. It is not possible for a teacher to give instruction in American 
history unless she knows much of the swing and trend, relation and 
purpose of all these peoples. 

Another method might be used in bringing the facts of the past before 
the mind of the child in striking form. Two thousand years ago Rome 
ruled the world and peace prevailed to its utmost borders, and Christ 
was born among the hills of Judea. He came to bring peace and good- 
will to all mankind. Five hundred years come and go, and Rome with- 
■draws from northwestern Europe and retires within narrow limits. The 
tribes of Germany over-run England and drive into the hills the native 
Britons. The Vandals conquer southern Europe and carry their devas- 
tations to the shores of the Mediterranean and the Empire transfers its 
throne to the Bosphorus. Another five hundred years pass away, and the 
Normans have conquered England ; America has been discovered ; the 
Albigenses' Reformation has spread its flickering and short-lived light 
■over central western Europe. Another five hundred years have been 
rolled up in the scroll, and with it have come the invention of printing 
and of gunpowder, the rediscovery of America, the Lutheran reformation, 
the revival of learning, the crumbling of the Eastern Empire, and the dis- 
persion of Greek learning and literature throughout western Europe. 

It is easy to see that events swing in great cycles in the world's supreme 
movements. There seems to be an ebb and flow in the affairs of men 
which leave great determining facts standing out like the high mountain 
peaks in our loftiest ranges. The skillful teacher can give the child 
such bird's-eye views of this great current of human life that its essential 
facts may stand revealed to him in the clear, white light of truth. 

We have seen that there was a fountain, far away in eastern lands 
from which many streams have flowed in diverse and diverging directions. 
It is no figure of speech to say that all these great rivers have converged 
and found their last reservoir this side of the Atlantic. To us have come 
all nations and all peoples, each laden with his burden, each bringing 
his contribution. The amalgamation of all these elements will, in the 
end, give us the ideal citizen of the world. We are to have, in the days 
that are to come, that fine reverence and devotion for which the Jew 
strove but never attained. We are to have the sensuous enjoyment of 
beauty without any of the sensualism which characterized the early Greek. 
We are to be strong enough, one of these days, to rule more wisely than 
the Roman ever ruled, because we shall govern without tyranny. We areto 
have the vision which enabled the ancient Celt to see radiant vistas. We 
shall have all these things because the underlying and essential part of 
our inheritance comes from that portion of the race that is possessed of 
the power which makes it easy for them to absorb the good and reject 
the evil which life offers. 

Nothing could be more unwise than for the common school teacher 
to spend her time trying to gain information concerning those peoples by 
studying the heavy tomes of which Rawlinson's is, perhaps, the best 
example. This information can be most easily gathered from anecdote, 
incident, sketch, story, tradition, legend. Butterworth, Miss Yonge, 
Bolton, Knox will furnish world portraits and pictures, while Mahaffy 
and the Story of the Nation Series will give her a truer historical per- 
spective and a better basis for future study. The child should be made 



II 

to see the homes these people builded, the' schools they maintained, the 
temples in which they worshipped, the industries with which they occu- 
pied themselves; in a word, to come in touch with the daily life of the 
common people, know the leaders and breathe the atmosphere created by 
the good and great. He must walk adown the long path with an Indian 
mystic and let him tell the story of his people; go with an old Greek 
out into the groves and stand beneath its arching trees, or sit in the 
porches of one of those noble temples and listen to the gracious wisdom 
of a sage ; live again in the City that sat on seven hills and discover how 
it ruled the world ; stand by some Druidical circle, and watch the weird 
rites with which the old Celt propitiated his gods; find a home benealh 
the lowering skies of that old Germany which has given us the brain that 
holds in charge so large a share of the world's activities. The old world 
in all its interests, all its hopes and fears, all its aspirations and short- 
comings, must live again in the child's fertile imagination, and all classes, 
conditions, sects, races, must be known by him through that medium 
which teaches history better than the formal record has ever given it to us. 
If we come more definitely within the limits of our own history it is 
well for us to take note of the two great classes which made early set- 
tlements within our borders. The Pilgrim and the Puritan are our ances- 
tors ; the Cavalier found a home beneath warmer skies. The Puritan 
was cold, brusque, harsh, enjoyed suffering for the good he felt it wrought 
within him. He was severe in his judgment of himself and cruel in his 
relations to other.s, but he was strong and clean and righteous, faithful 
and hardy and earnest ; did his own reading and his own thinking, and 
braced himself to fight oppression wherever manifested. The Cavalier 
was refined without being scholarly; he had polish, grace and an easy 
observance of conventional forms. He gloried in broad acres, baronial 
homes, and many of the trappings of royalty. He was eager, ardent, 
impulsive, a thorough-going hater, and a friend loyal to his last dollar 
and his last drop of blood. Separated by an imperceptible line, these 
two classes waxed strong, multiplied in numbers, advanced in civiliza- 
tion and contended for supremacy. The Cavalier yielded to the yeoman. 
In yielding, he received much of blessing and gave richly of the quality 
most needed in Northern life— that fine observance of the amenities of 
modern society, so necessary to civil and civilized living. If these out- 
lines are clearly set before the child, he can see the Southern home and 
the Northern fireside; the broad stretching fields of Virginia and the 
smaller homestead of New England; the self-contained power of the 
one and the over-flowing spirits of the other, and this knowledge will 
help him to truer ideas of the sources from which he came, the inheri- 
tance which is his and the responsibilities placed upon him. 

The child should also have opportunities to study persons, places and 
events. He should study the individual in such a way that he will know 
of his ancestry, home, childhood, young manhood, mature years, the 
training he received, the tasks to which he gave himself, the work he 
did, the results coming from it. This study should make Samuel Adams 
something more than a name to him. This rare old Puritan, living in a 
quiet home, on a secluded street, cared for by his wife, made possible 
the Revolution and its successful issue. He was the one man who saw 
the conflict long before it came, hastened its coming, effected the con- 



J 2 



solidation of the Colonies, held John Hancock in all his limpness to his 
task and place, and fought the intellectual battles of this great war. 
Samuel Adams was the supreme mind of his day ; — large enough to be 
willing to keep out of sight, strong enough to use the means which came 
to his hand, and true enough to fight it out on the line chosen if it took 
a hundred summers. 

The Missouri Compromise is an event which should be treated with a 
fullness not possible in a half dozen lines of an ordinary text-book. It 
was the crucial point in our history ; toward it all details led ; from it 
all subsequent history radiates. It was the beginning of the end of a 
struggle centuries old. and it also made possible our present commanding 
position. It is the pivot around which revolve a hundred lesser questions 
in the settlement of which came the final decision declared by Lincoln 
to be inevitable. 

Valley Forge is a place that should be sacred to every lover of liberty. 
Here men stood and suffered, and served as they waited. Here men's 
souls were tried, and here it was determined that if eternity should be 
needed to settle the question of the freedom of the Colonies, eternity should 
be dedicated to that holy purpose. 

A comprehensive idea of our Civil War may be given through the use 
of a simple illustration. Place the edge of the hand upon the map with 
the thumb upward and the wrist resting just below the city of Wash- 
ington, extend the hand across Virginia and West Virginia and over 
into Kentucky, and allow the fingers to follow down the Mississippi 
river, and as they close in, come across Georgia. Alabama, and the Caro- 
linas, and when the ends of the fingers have come back to the wrist, you 
have the circumference of the rebellion and you have the life squeezed 
out of the conspiracy. The strong strain was. at the start, and remained 
lo the end of the war. at the wrist, and it is here the greatest power 
was resident. Hard fighting came along through the back of the hand ; 
the gathering into the crushing folds of the fingers indicates the battles 
fought on the Gulf. It is an illustration that seems to be helpful in mak- 
ing clear to the child the seat of the conflict, the extent of the disaffection, 
and the efforts made to reduce the rebelling states to subjection. 

It is evident that these suggestions have covered a wide area, set a 
swift pace, outlined work for whose mastery years would be insufficient. 
Still it cannot be denied that it is necessary for us to know the point at 
which we started, the highways we have traveled, the places we have 
reached, the direction in which we are facing, the goal which is des- 
tined to be ours if we are true to ourselves and loyal to the best within us. 

There is no question but that our language and literature, industries 
and civilization, homes and churches, schools and philanthropies, are to 
go to the ends of the earth and the islands of the sea. Wherever dark- 
ness is found, there the light set beneath these western skies must shed 
its beams, or the vice and the degradation which lurks in these far away 
places will become the agents of our undoing. Great blessings are ours; 
these can only remain our choicest possession by giving them lo those 
who stand in need of the best the ages have given us. 



13 



ARITHMETIC IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 



All children have limitations. Some have meagre possibilities. Any 
attempt to compel a child to do work he cannot comprehend results in 
arrested development. He not only remains a stranger to the subject 
studied, but he loses the ability to understand and use what he could 
otherwise have made helpfully his own. A few children are debarred by 
nature from receiving scholastic training beyond a certain point. It is 
the duty of the school to aid such in pursuing their studies as far as 
possible. The generations yet to come must take the succeeding steps in 
the advancement of this portion of the race. Other children are unable, 
because of immaturity, to study with profit certain branches during their 
early years. All efforts tending to force these studies upon them result 
in benumbing not only the powers used, but in paralyzing all the faculties 
of the mind. One child in many thousands seems to be able to assimilate 
all kinds of intellectual food at every period of his development. He is 
the exception and is but little helped or harmed by the school. The 
majority of children must be taught intelligently if our schools are to 
provide us with useful citizens. They must have a chance to learn the 
things they can learn at the time they can master them best and above all. 
they must acquire those things which, in the learning, will give them the 
most power and will provide them with a store of usable information and 
thus make it possible for them to live wisely, safely and helpfully. 

The work of teaching can never be well done until the teacher under- 
stands the child, has mastered the subjects studied, knows modern 
methods so thoroughly that she uses them unconsciously, is capable of 
inventing her own devices, and has a well defined idea of the results she 
wishes to accomplish. That some of these conditions do not exist, and 
that none of them are as much in evidence as thoughtful students of the 
educational problem desire, go without saying. That we are steadily, if 
not rapidly, making improvements along these lines is also manifest. 

The fatal weakness at the present time is our ignorance of the child. 
The so-called Child Study so extensively advertised during the past few 
years has furnished not a little amusement to the profession and much 
entertainment for the general public. It has thus far done but little to 
make the work of the teacher more effective. It has not, as yet, furnished 
sufficient justification for the time devoted to these studies and their 
exploitation. 

No elaborate experiments nor subtle psychological investigations are 
needed to convince the intelligent teacher of the justness of the following 
statements. The child's mental powers should be trained during the 



period of their greatest natural activity. Any attempt to compel him to 
study a large number of subjects at a given time, or to swamp him in 
details, or to insist that he shall understand principles when he can best 
master facts, or to ask him to do many of the things now required in our 
common schools, will be attended with results lamented by so many 
teachers. The stupifying of the child so taught will surely follow. 

It is apparent to any observer that in his early years the child is eager 
in his questionings and alert in his observations. The work of the 
schools should help him to put his questions in intelligent form and obtain 
from his observations a reasonably definite knowledge of the objects 
within the range of his vision. During this period, nature, music, picto- 
rial art, reading, penmanship, spelling and a limited amount of number 
work, illustrated by familiar objects, may be studied with pleasure and 
profit. The age when these studies may be pursued to the best advantage 
varies with different pupils, but speaking generally it includes those of 
the primary grades. 

During the next period the child collects and records. At this time the 
head and pockets are filled with all kinds of material. He is a repository 
and a magazine and, in a limited sense, a cyclopedia. Facts have great 
attraction for him. He memorizes easily. He is willing to drudge in 
making his collections and rejoices as he sees his accumulations multiply. 
He should be so trained in all the combinations he will ever have occasion 
to use, that as soon as the items are named, the result will be present in 
his mind. Whenever he sees the expression eight plus seven, plus five, 
he will think the number tzventy as readily as he thinks of the word cat 
when he sees the letters cat. He should be required to memorize 
definitions, rules, literary gems, selections and certain general facts in the 
several subjects studied. The arithmetical part of this work should be 
made intelligible by the use of illustrations taken from his daily experi- 
ences. The work outlined in this paragraph can be done best during the 
intermediate grades. 

Having been taught to question intelligently, observe with discrimina- 
tion, retain with definiteness and accuracy, he is prepared for the next 
step in his progress. 

In the last three years of the common school course he is fitted to con- 
trast, compare, infer, in a word, to reason. He can now address himself 
to the subject matter and science of arithmetic. He should be required 
to apply facts to the illustration of principles. He has reached a point 
in his development where he can see the truths underlying the rule given, 
the definition recited and the problem solved. He will have less concern 
about getting the "right answer" and more interest in mastering the 
thought expressed. He will be able to comprehend and apply those 
fundamental principles in arithmetic so little understood even by some 
teachers. 

The following illustrations are so familiar as not to need elaboration 
and are therefore stated in their simplest terms. Addition is counting on 
by ones and multiplication is counting on by twos, threes, etc. ; subtrac- 
tion is taking from by ones and division is taking from by twos, threes. 



15 

etc. ; hence addition and multiplication are counting o)i and subtraction 
and division are counting from. Stated in its simplest form, these four 
fundamental rules include the entire process of counting. As the pupil 
goes forward m his work, he will discover that the following problem 
involves the most important principles dealt with in this branch of study. 
If a man buy four cows for $100.00, what will five cows cost? When he 
shall have made his own all the facts and principles contained in the 
above propositions, he will have a mastery of more of the science of arith- 
metic than is possessed by the average graduate of our common schools. 

One of these days we shall be wise enough to limit the work in arith- 
metic to the four fundamental rules, common fractions, decimals, the 
simple applications of denominate numbers and percentage. This work 
will be illustrated and rendered helpful in- mental training by using mate- 
rial which the child collects, and using it in such a way as to make valu- 
able his every day experiences with his schoolmates, his home and other 
associates. We shall be content to leave involution, evolution, alligation, 
permutations, foreign exchange, annual interest and the finding of the 
solid contents of the frustum of a pyramid for later years, and sometimes 
we shall be wise enough to leave them for years that will never arrive. 

It is questioned if many people appreciate the amount of time devoted 
to, or wasted upon arithmetic. The child commences this branch when 
he enters school and. in most cases, devotes at least one whole period 
each day for five days in the week during all the years he remains in the 
primary, intermediate and grammar grades. This simple statement 
brings home with tremendous force the waste made by the child in the 
time given to this subject. It also reveals the extent of our stumbling in 
the twilight of things. 

Any one familiar with the work and with the young child's inability to 
master it, knows that if he commence it at a later date, when his mental 
training fits him for the task, three years make possible a comprehension 
of the subject that nine years of drudgery under present methods fail to 
give. Stated in another form, the child who devotes his eighth and ninth 
years to a mastery of number in simple combinations, his tenth and 
eleventh years to learning something about definitions and rules and the 
simple processes involved, and his twelfth and thirteenth years to the 
study of arithmetic, will make a great saving in time and acquire a knowl- 
edge of the subject possessed by few adults. 

The natural inferences to be gathered from the foregoing discussion 
are included in the following statement. We would do better work if we 
commenced the study later, devoted less time to it, mastered the funda- 
mental facts, understood the essential principles, applied them to the 
ordinary experiences of life, and omitted a large portion of the text which 
now furnishes puzzles and the study of which produces stupefaction. If 
we could fully realize the injury inflicted upon the child by the amount 
of work we require of him, the unnaturalness of his attempt to under- 
stand intricate and abstruse reasoning processes in his early years, and 
the comparatively rare use ever made of the knowledge acquired, then we 
would give to this branch the time it merits and get out of it the mental 
training it is capable of giving. 



i6 



It is hardly necessary to say that while doing the work indicated above, 
the child should receive such instruction in art, literature, geography, 
history and other subjects as will furnish opportunities for the develop- 
ment of his imagination and the culture of his sympathies ; such nurture 
as will put him in touch and tune with life in all its best forms. 

We shall, one of these days, see the unwisdom of sending the child to 
school when he is five years of age. The historian of the future will 
furnish in proof of our semi-civilized state, the fact that we did not 
allow the child his first and greatest right, the right to grow. Before 
many years, the age when the child may enter school will be raised to six ; 
later, will be advanced to seven and before the present century closes, will 
be fixed at eight years. The years now devoted to the primary grades 
will be given to a modified form of kindergarten training. This work 
will be so administered that the child will become sturdy physically, 
intelligent and responsive morally, and alert and ambitious intellectually. 
Then we shall not see the limpness and indifference manifest in so many 
children. They will be allowed to start at the beginning, go forward in 
the paths in which they are fitted by nature to walk, and in the end 
acquire that power which natural conditions and wholesome work, pur- 
sued according to intelligent methods, can give them. 

These changes are not to be made at once and it is not best that radical 
means be adopted in bringing them about, but all who are interested in 
the training of our youth, and especially our school officials and teachers, 
should give to the problem stated above, such reading, study, investigation 
and prudent experiment as will, in a reasonable time, replace the methods 
found in our common schools with such school privileges as will permit 
the child to be the most his capacities and abilities will allow him to 
become. 



I? 



SOME GAINS. 



That there has been an increasingly intelligent administration of our 
schools dtiring the past few years admits of no question. Parents arc 
insisting that efficient teachers be placed in charge of the instruction of 
their children ; that school officials discharge the duties devolving upon 
them with the faithfulness which characterizes the methods used by the 
prudent individual in the management of his private affairs ; and above 
all, they are assisting by their personal efforts and gifts, m making the 
school grounds more attractive and in supplying the schoolrooms with 
books and pictures for the use. not only of the teachers and pupils, but 
also of the people of the community in which the school is located. 
School officials are also making studies of school sanitation ; are urging 
towns to make improvements in out-buildings and school-buildings ; are 
exercising greater care in purchasing material, and are calling for 
teachers who are scholastically and professionally fitted to render accept- 
able service in the schoolroom. Teachers are attending Teachers' Insti- 
tutes and Summer Schools in larger numbers than ever before. They 
show the liveliest interest in learning the best methods of instruction, and 
they are providing themselves with the latest books on pedagogy and the 
most useful magazines on schoolroom work. Even the children seem to 
have caught the spirit which so largely influences those who are striving 
to improve our common schools. Nearly fifty-five thousand members have 
been enrolled in the School Improvement Leagues of Maine. The work 
(lone by this organization is valuable because of the results accomplished, 
but is still more useful in that it is developing a local interest in the local 
school, which in time will result in making it the social, literary and art 
center of the community in which it is located. Hundreds of school yards 
have been graded and converted into lawns, and trees, shrubs and flowers 
have been planted in a number so large that the figures seem almost 
incredible. Tmnbled-down fences have been replaced by those of more 
attractive patterns. Out-buildings that were a moral menace to the chil- 
dren have been burned, and others of improved construction have been 
built in their places. A large number of school-buildings have been 
painted, and the ceilings and walls of scores of schoolrooms have been 
papered or tinted. The list of materials furnished through the efforts of 
the members of the League is too long to be enumerated at this time. It 
includes many thousand volumes of books, a still larger number of pic- 
tures, globes, maps, charts and other apparatus, and utensils without 
number. The organization has been in existence a little more than three 
years. Its work has been so far-reaching that it has practically produced 
a revolution in manv communities. 



i8 



SOME CONDITIONS. 

While great gains have been made, it is clear that a larger work remains 
to be performed than has yet been accomplished. It is true that parents, 
school officials, teachers and pupils are working together for the better- 
ment of our schools with an energy and efficiency never before seen in 
this State, yet it is also true that certain things must be done before our 
schools can properly serve the children. Each succeeding decade places 
larger responsibilities upon the shoulders of those who have come upon 
the stage of action than fell to the lot of their predecessors. To be able 
to do this work with credit to themselves and for the greatest good of 
those for whom it is done, the doers must have the best blood, nurture, 
environment and training that thought, sludy. skill, money and effort can 
give them. 

There are several problerns facing our people at the present time in our 
school affairs. The first is, equal school privileges for all children of 
school age. About one-third of the sum necessary for maintaining the 
common schools of Maine is furnished from the State treasury. While 
it is true that forty-seven per cent, of the towns receive a receipt in full 
for their State taxes, and, in addition, a check for the balance due on 
funds apportioned, yet there are certain considerations which it would 
seem have not received their merited weight in this matter of providing 
equal educational opportunities for all the children of the State. No 
other equal population in this country has furnished so large a body of 
men and women who have been leaders in all fields of human activity as 
has been found here in the State of Maine. These results have been due 
to several efficient causes. Our people are fortunate in having a quality 
of blood which makes it natural for them to be ambitious of holding 
places of trust and rendering a service of worth. It has also kept active 
within them the desire to attain distinction because of merit. The homes 
•of Maine have been domestic universities, in which those stalwart quali- 
ties are found which characterize persons of intelligent will, enduring 
energy, conspicuous mental ability, fine moral quality and conquering 
effort. Chores and testing responsibilities have bred in our young people 
the wish to be, a love for work, a determination to achieve, and the 
courage which refuses to recognize obstacles. The sacrifices which have 
been made by parents and children that the boys and girls might go to 
the academy and then on to college, have helped in fitting these same boys 
and girls for stations of trust. These experiences have developed in 
them the capacity to meet emergencies, and the power to solve trying 
problems and to reach decisions for which there was no precedent. The 
drudging toil, the pinching economy, the struggle for subsistence, the 
effort necessary to insure advancement, have all been school-masters in 
the training of those who have given our State its quality and other states 
their sanest clergymen, most successful teachers, soundest jurists, ablest 
statesmen, wisest captains of industry and greatest pofts. No true son 
or daughter of Maine will permit, if possible to prevent, the dimming 
of the lustre which these men and woinen have made a part of our 



19 

proud inheritance. We rejoice in the work they did, the service they 
rendered, the results they achieved, and the glory which is theirs and 
ours. 

We shall be wise if we learn the lesson, so clearly taught by history, 
that the machinery so useful in yesterday's living cannot be used in 
to-day's work. What was sufficient for days that are gone will not 
serve in the day in which we live. We have passed beyond our pioneer 
period. We are living in the day when the burden of each must be 
the concern of all. In the old days of isolation, man was not his brother's 
keeper in the sense he must be in these days wlien all cotnmunities are 
neighbors and the most distant often sit at our hearthstone. The electric 
car, the steam railroad, the telegraph, the newspaper, the magaziuf. 
make intimate companions of those who live miles apart. Frequent 
change of location has become a part of the progress of our era. The 
boy bred upon the farm comes to one of the centres of population to 
dig out for himself a place in the community in which he makes his new 
home. The dweller in the city goes back to his ancestral acres to rebuild 
the old home in more stately form, and brings into this rural community 
the enlightening and ennobling elements of urban life. He brings its 
culture, refinement, love of the beautiful, the desire for those things 
which are best — those things which stimulate and inspire and give grace 
and beauty to life. He brings a broader horizon into clearer skies. He 
brings the latest thought, the newest invention, the touch with the world, 
and stirs those with whom he comes in contact to a better thought and 
a wider vision; to a desire to know, a capacity to enjoy, a recognition 
of the usefulness of comeliness. This intercourse gives us a common 
interest in all children born within the State. We have a common 
concern about the character of the homes from whicli they come, the 
quality of the schools in which they are trained, and the worth and 
strength it is possible for them to attain. 

It is the best judgment of those who have made the most careful 
studies of the subject, that a large majority of our citizens are willing 
to bear their full share of the burden imposed by the State in providing 
for the expenses incident to the management of its affairs and the main- 
taining of the institutions under its control. Citizens possessed of 
wealth, as a rule, are disposed to recognize that they are safer in their 
person, securer in their property, if suitable schools are provided for 
the children, if convenient roads are maintained as highways of travel, 
if public institutions are supported in such a way as to furnish the pro- 
tection and care needed by the unfortunate, and if all the functions of 
government are so discharged as to hold the vicious in subjection and 
encourage the virtuous in their labors. The administration of all these 
interests involves the expenditure of large sums of money. If this is 
wisely done and the burden is equitably distributed among those who 
are protected and benefited, then each can contribute his share without 
hardship to himself. 



20 



EQUAL SCHOOL PRIVILEGES. 

There are many advantages in being born in a rural community. The 
simplicity of country life makes it possible for those enjoying its benefits 
to grow into the possession of unusual powers. There are certain dis- 
advantages incident to city life. The distractions of the street, the fas- 
cinations of entertainment, the absence of home cares and duties which 
develop resolute fibre, and the enervating contact which brushes the 
bloom from youth and takes the zest out of young life, are to be reckoned 
with in the care and training of children. Much of the best blood found 
in our population has come from the farm homes. That it should come 
Rowing in the veins of cultured men and women is of vital interest to 
those who make up the population of our cities. A large proportion of 
the profitable trade of the cities is found in the rural communities. All 
students of industrial affairs are aware that it is the educated person 
who demands a home with all the conveniences and adornments of 
modern life. The citizen who has had the best training demands the 
best environment. If those who are now living in our cities are to find 
for themselves congenial homes in our country towns, they must go 
among a people fitted by culture and desire to be not only their com- 
panions but their peers. If these considerations have in them aught of 
merit, then all our people have a common interest in furnishing equal 
school privileges for all the school children of the State. The boy who 
lives at the end of a tote-path should have an opportunity to learn to 
read, write and cipher, at the expense of his parents and the parents of 
the boy who lives on the aristocratic street of the metropolis. They 
have an equal financial investment in this youth, and they should be held 
responsible for such schooling as will make him largely useful in what- 
ever work he may undertake or station he may fill. The time has come 
when narrow-visioned selfishness should give place to broad ideas of 
civic duty. We can no longer attempt to settle this fjuestion by deter- 
mining what we imagine will be our present money gain. We must be 
just and, if it be necessary, we must be generous. Those who are 
favored with large possessions must meet like men the responsibility 
which wealth places upon them. The widow's son must have an equal 
chance with the millionaire's boy in the struggle not only for existence 
but for usefulness. The wise man of wealth knows that what he invests 
in this boy multiplies his dollars and keeps them at par. It is as true 
of the State as of the individual that it cannot do the best for the humblest 
of its citizens without doing the best for the best conditioned of its people. 
Whatever helps those in need of assistance helps infinitely more those 
who give this aid. All questions are, in their last analysis, moral ques- 
tions. Those who fail to meet moral responsibilities worthily, must 
suffer certain deterioration. 



21 



EXPENDITURE OF PUBLIC FUNDS. 

Circumstances have made it necessary for the people of Maine to be 
frugal, both in their private expenses and public expenditures. While 
our State is found near the top in the list of the wealthy states of the 
Union, yet we have never had a large number of citizens who were pos- 
sessed of great holdings. Our wealth has been evenly distributed, and 
for that reason habits of thrift have been cultivated and strict economy 
has been necessary. We have gained the strength and capacity which 
comes from acquiring property, and we have developed the wisdom and 
sagacity which results from careful investment. Large inheritances are 
not always a blessing and sometimes they are an injury to those receiv- 
ing them. Things won by our own efforts are worth -.nore than they 
will bring in the market. They give not only security against want, but 
ability to do still more and better work. The thought, care, struggle, 
study, effort, necessary to accumulate worldly goods breed in their pos- 
sessor the power to labor, the ability to think, the desire to acquire, the 
self-respect which ownership gives and the dignity which follows the 
mastery of trying conditions. 

Our citizens have long been noted for their ability to wring more than 
a subsistence from what has been termed "a sour and unwilling soil." 
They have done this because of the strength they have brought to their 
work, the brains they have put into it, and the faithfulness with which 
they have devoted themselves to it. That they have been successful 
there can be no question. That they have merited these successes there 
can be no doubt. That they are enjoying the fruit of their labors in well 
conditioned homes, many schools of rare merit, public institutions of 
a high grade, and a people of the noble quality, goes without the saying. 
Mistakes have been made in the over zealousness with which some have 
struggled to enlarge their bank accounts and multiply their acres. That 
this is true is not strange or discouraging. The time has come when 
another phase of this question must receive more careful attention than 
has been given it up to the present time, if our prosperity is to increase 
rather than to diminish. We have been intelligent and successful in our 
efforts to produce and accumulate. We have not always been wise in 
the expenditure of these accumulations. We have not been sufficiently 
concerned about getting a dollar's worth of service or material, or doing 
a dollar's worth of good with the dollar spent. In school matters we have 
not even exercised that prudence which has characterized the manage- 
ment of our private affairs. We have paid more for material furnished 
than it sold for in the open market, and too often we have been content 
with short measure, under weight, or inferior quality. Any one who 
spends a dollar without getting for it an adequate return, wrongs both 
himself and the person to whom it is paid. He wrongs himself because 
the possession of the dollar places upon him the responsibility of its 
intelligent and honest expenditure. He wrongs the person to whom it 
is paid because he assists in developing in him a dishonest spirit, and 
doing something which is infinitely worse, destroying his self-respect. 



22 



One who receives a dollar without giving for it its equivalent, either is 
content to be dishonest, or lives under the stinging accusation which in 
the end will W'Ork his corruption. 

While many of these statements may seem to have a general appli- 
cation, still the special purpose in introducing them at this time is to call 
the attention of school officials, teachers and parents, to the necessity of 
so conducting all the business administration of the school as to teach 
the important and wholesome lesson that it is as necessary to spend money 
honestly, as to acquire it by honest means ; that possession carries with 
it certain duties ; that the same care should be used in spending the money 
belonging to the public as prudent people exercise in the expenditure of 
their private funds, and that these principles should be exemplified in 
every transaction to which school officials are parties. It is a part of 
the business of the school to teach by its administration and by its 
instruction the necessity and the righteousness of thrift, economy, pru- 
dence, forethought and honesty, in the acquiring and disbursing of private 
and public funds. 

The study which was made of the waste existing in the management 
of our schools, some years since, puts beyond all question the necessity 
for school officials giving much attention to this important subject. 
While there is no disposition to urge an unwise curtailing of appropria- 
tions or a niggardly expenditure of school moneys, still it is important 
that all those having charge of such funds shall so use them as to leave 
their custodians with clear consciences and bring to them the approval 
of honest and intelligent citizens. 



LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

Local self-government has been one of the privileges highly prized by 
the citizens of Maine. It has been a vital factor in our growth. It has 
given our people a certain independence and capacity which have made 
them so exceptionally useful in the important walks of life. While many 
mistakes have been made, yet even these blunders have been the means 
of helping communities to grow into better conditions. Any community 
having the responsibility of caring for its poor, constructing its roads, 
and maintaining its schools, must learn its lessons in the expensive school 
of experience. These lessons will not be fully learned until much time 
has been consumed and large sums of money have apparently been 
wasted. Unwise methods will be used in caring for the unfortunate ; 
unsuitable material and improper treatment of the same will be used in 
building highways ; too large sums will be paid for material used in the 
scho<>^, and teachers of inferior grade will be employed to take charge 
of the instruction of the children. While all these items are conceded, 
yet it is nevertheless true that the training which comes to people from 
being brought together in annual town meeting and being furnished an 
opportunity to devise ways and means, discuss plans and projects, and 
decide upon policies to be adopted, is worth all it costs. It stimulates 
a majority of the citizens to think, study, read, consider, estimate, weigh. 



23 

decide and then carry their decisions into effect. It is this training which 
has made our people ambitious to take positions of responsibility and fur- 
nished them with the power which enables them to fill these places with 
distinction. It is the school in which have been trained our independent, 
thoughtful, self-respecting, hardy, capable farmers, lawyers, physicians, 
teachers, business men, scholars, authors, inventors, statesmen ; in fact, 
those of every class and kind, who have been true to themselves and 
helpful to others. 

Local self-government has been a means of grace to our people and 
should be jealously guarded, and any attempt xto deprive them of this 
university should be met with the opposition necessary to defeat the 
movement. It would be well for us, however, not to be carried away 
by the clamor which excites alarm, when no occasion for anxiety exists. 
There has never been a time in the history of the State when the affairs 
of the town were more completely under the control of the residents of 
the municipality than during the past decade. While it is true that the 
district system has been abolished, yet it is well to bear in mind that 
many towns at the present time have not as large a school population as 
many districts had fifty years ago. While the unit of control has been 
changed, the extent of control has not been diminished. It is still the 
duty of the town to elect school officials, and to give such instructions 
and directions as it sees fit. Any failure on the part of these officials to 
comply with the wishes of the people, may be followed by the dismissal 
of these officers at the next town meeting. School officers are quite as 
likely to err in being too sensitive to the sometimes violently expressed 
wishes of factions found in towns as they are to refuse to carry out the 
wishes of the majority. It is well to bear in mind that the town elects 
its school officers, that through these officials it has charge of its teaching 
force, determines the subjects in which instruction shall be given, the 
length of time for which schools shall be maintained and through this 
agency controls every item and detail connected with the administration 
and management of the local schools. It is not necessary to remark 
that the State establishes certain minimum conditions which must be 
complied with provided the town wishes to receive its proportion of what 
is known as the Common School Fund. 

The law passed a few years since, authorizing towns to unite for the 
purpose of employing a superintendent of schools, in no way takes from 
the powers or in any form limits the duties and responsibilities of the 
citizens of the town. Under this law, school committees are elected in 
the same way as under the former, and they are given the same powers. 
The superintendent has neither more nor less of authority than under 
the general statute. He is elected for the same length of time, accord- 
ing to the same forms and discharges his duties under the same limi- 
tations as if he were the superintendent of a single town. The entering 
upon this arrangement depends upon the vote of the town. The power 
to continue in it must come from the same source. The town is at 
liberty to withdraw whenever a majority of the voters see fit to do so. 
In no way is the town relieved, or excused, or limited in the control of 
its schools if it takes advantage of this law. 



^ 019 878 244 



While it is true that local self-government is a privilege to be highly 
prized, carefully guarded and intelligently used, and while it is also true 
that it furnishes the best means yet devised by man for permitting a 
certain kind of necessary training, yet it is also well- for us not to forget 
that many unfortunate things will be done. We may, however, remem- 
ber, with some satisfaction, that growth, to an extent, depends upon 
mistakes, and that experience has taught us that it is better for us to 
have the responsibility and inake the blunders and grow into better 
things, than to have those affairs which concern us most vitally, managed 
by others and have no so-called errors made. In the one case growth 
is possible; in the other, degeneration in certain. 

But perhaps the greatest blessing coming to the schools because of 
local self-government, is the local interest which will be developed in the 
local school. When the parent assists in the enlarging and grading of 
the school grounds, the providing of a suitable fence to enclose it, the 
erecting of safe out-buildings, the tinting or papering of schoolroom 
walls and ceilings, the supplying of books for the general reading of his 
children, and pictures for their culture and pleasure, he will be doing 
something more than doing all these things ; he will be making a stronger, 
nobler, cleaner man of himself. One cannot be interested in good things 
without becoming better. One cannot help others without doing much 
for himself. One cannot serve without being served. 

Experience has taught us that it is not best for the towns to furnish 
the means for doing the things indicated above. The work done by the 
School Improvement Leagues makes it clear that it is best that these 
things be supplied by the residents of the communities in which they are 
provided, to the end that the schoolroom may be the social, literary and 
art centre of the community in which it is located. When all our citizens 
are ready so to consider it, and are willing to help so to make it, then 
we shall have a local sentiment which will make not only the local school 
better but local self-government will be vindicated and local control will 
be assured. 



LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 

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019 878 244 



